By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The identity crisis at the North Baltimore CSX hub may be over soon – with the creation of more than 1,000 jobs, and a possible investment of $150 million.
When the CSX Intermodal facility opened nine years ago west of North Baltimore, it brought with it the promise of further development. Local officials were told the open acreage on the south side of Ohio 18, by the local CSX site, was ripe for placement of distribution and manufacturing facilities.
But the North Baltimore site wasn’t on the map of most businesses.
“I know you all have looked at the CSX hub as an economic engine,” Brent Miles, of NorthPoint Development, said this morning to the Wood County commissioners. But that engine stalled out – until now, Miles said.
The commissioners were asked to enter into a Community Reinvestment Act agreement with North Point for 278 acres in Henry Township, across the road from the railroad hub. The CRA will allow for 100% tax abatements for 15 years for the businesses that occupy the buildings built by NorthPoint.
The school districts affected by the tax breaks – North Baltimore and Penta Career Center – have already entered agreements with NorthPoint to be reimbursed for their lost tax revenue.
If the project goes as planned, the engineering, infrastructure improvements to roads, water and sewer lines, and grading of the acreage will begin this year, Miles said.
The North Baltimore site is attractive to businesses because it’s less expensive than locating along the East Coast.
“Obviously land is cheaper to buy here than it is in New Jersey,” he said.
And this region boasts a workforce with a great work ethic, he said.
“This is a ‘day’s work – day’s pay’ area,” he said.
However, the remoteness of this area has been a problem for marketing the warehouse development. This is not the “Baltimore” that businesses know.
“No offense to your community,” Miles said. But he often has to explain where North Baltimore is located.
NorthPoint has dubbed the warehouse site as “Logistics Park Ohio.”
“Once we get our foot in the door,” with companies unfamiliar with this region, the close proximity to population centers like Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland will help sell the site, he said.
“This is real. This is a transportation alternative that’s not on your map – and it should be on your map,” Miles said of NorthPoint’s pitch.
NorthPoint is in the process of trying to beat out another state for one company eyeing the North Baltimore location.
“We are selling your area very hard to that company,” he said.
“We’re excited about this,” he said. “It is finally the economic development realization of what that intermodal can be.”
NorthPoint Development, of Kansas City, is the largest privately held industrial landowner in the U.S., Miles said. The company realized the value of the centrally located rail hub.
“We think this is a big opportunity for a partnership with CSX and Norfolk Southern,” he said.
NorthPoint plans to build large warehouses, and recruit businesses to fill them.
“We don’t know who the companies will be to go in here,” Miles said, listing off companies like Amazon, Target or Bridgestone Tires that could be interested in the site. NorthPoint is promoting the intermodal rail port, and the ability to temporarily store goods in the warehouses, where they can be sorted and then sent on the next leg on their journeys to their destinations.
“We input a lot of containers” to the U.S., which then travel by rail across the U.S., he said. And the North Baltimore hub is an ideal location for warehousing those goods.
“It’s ability to serve lots of populations in a short amount of time,” makes it very marketable, Miles said.
Not only will the warehouses create more jobs and investment in the area, they will also help ensure the longevity of the CSX rail hub, he said. Hub users and economic development are needed to retain the intermodal, he explained.
Miles praised the efforts of local economic development officials to make the logistics park a reality. He said he has encountered “horror stories” in other areas such as Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
“Everyone’s been respectful,” he said of the local responses in Wood County. “You have a really great community. This will be a big project and I’m really looking forward to it.”
